Factors like exposure to obesity, culture, body image, social ties, and stress increase college students' propensity of becoming obese

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Some of the main factors that influence college students’ propensity of becoming obese are the following: prolonged exposure to obese people, culture, body image, social interactions with acquaintances or relatives, and stress. An imbalance of these may result in an unwanted increase in weight gain, and in the future may even affect you in your workplace.

It is often assumed that obesity is caused only by eating too much unhealthy food and not exercising, however this is not the case. Obesity is a more complex issue, some factors that play a role in college students’ inclination towards becoming obese are unalterable, like race and culture. Obesity is a relevant issue today and my goal is to discuss some of the research that has been found. And attempting to find ways to prevent obesity from rising across colleges.

Prevalence of obesity, culture, and body image affect college students' negative views on obesity

A study concluded that the more time Japanese college students spent in New York City, the more the college students increased their Ideal Body Size because they were getting used to seeing people of bigger weights. However, after a few days of arriving to the United States the Japanese students had previously indicated they wanted a lower Ideal Body Size than when they were questioned the second time. This shows the effect prolonged exposure to obesity has on college students, it reduces the amount of negative views they have.

One of the persons I interviewed was Doctor of Public Health, Linda Aldoory. I asked her what she thought about the study mentioned in the research article above and her response was the following:

Aldoory responded that she believes body image and culture are significant factors that play a major role in people's perceptions on their bodies. Body image referring to the "perception of one's own body size." Aldoory goes on to mention that perceiving differences in our bodies may cause us to eat in response to that feeling.

Social ties can change college students’ Body Mass Index by more than 50 percent 

Another study I came across shows that social interactions with people we know can count for more than half of the change in our Body Mass Indexes. These results came from a study done on 42 college students that measured their mobile activity and how often the students contacted people they knew. Another expert I interviewed was Doctor of Individual and Family Sciences, Elaine Anderson. The first question I asked her was whether or not she believed social ties are relevant to obesity and why she believes so. Her response was the following:

Anderson responded that she believes social ties are relevant, because family members often model how we are supposed to eat. She goes on to explain that according to how we see our family eat (i.e. the ways, amounts, and types of foods they eat), is what sets the standard or becomes the norm of eating to us.

Stress affects the behavior patterns of college students, which increases their likelihood of gaining unwanted weight  

Another factor found to play a large role on college students’ weight is stress. College students experience a large, and rapid increase in weight in comparison to non-college persons (i.e. college-aged individuals who do not attend college). The study found that stress among other emotions affected the decisions college students made on what to eat, how much alcohol to drink, and other behavior patterns.

As a result of the shifts in those college students’ behaviors, there was an increased chance that they would gain unwanted weight. Initially the objective of this study was to focus on why college students gain weight and whether race was a large enough factor that affected college students’ weights as well. However, the evidence for that hypothesis was insufficient.

I asked Anderson whether or not she agreed that stress is a relevant issue when discussing weight changes. She said this in response:

Anderson agreed that stress is relevant when talking about eating behaviors. She explained how everyone has stress in their lives, and how some people cope with the stress in their lives by increasing the amount of food they eat as well as the quality of the food. Anderson gave the example of eating junk food, which many people openly admit to doing.

Informing students of quantity/quality of food they consume, as well as implementing exercise programs may help decrease obesity in colleges

After learning about how many different factors can cause effects on the weights of college students. I decided to ask Anderson what her opinion was on attempting to decrease obesity in colleges. She said the following:  

Anderson stated that by increasingly educating college students on the types of foods they eat and the amount of food they eat can contribute to their risk of becoming obese can help students realize that they may be at risk or prevent them from following the path they were on. She also stated that implementing exercise programs in colleges could also be beneficial in helping to reduce obesity in colleges. 

I conducted an interview of a University of Maryland college student on campus and asked what she thought about what the expert, Anderson, said. In regards to helping reduce obesity through implementation of exercise and health programs to help increase the knowledge current college students have on the issue of obesity. The student responded the following:

The student stated that the ideas the expert expressed were great suggestions. However, the student believes college students already have the necessary information on obesity. The student, after the video, discussed that the problem is not misinformation, but maybe a lack of motivation from students. The student believes there are other ways of decreasing obesity than attempting to teach college students what they already know.

Teaching students hands-on through cooking can help improve college students' awareness of obesity

I asked Aldoory,“How can we try to make college students more aware of what they are eating besides using advertisements or inviting guest speakers on campus?” Her response was the following:

Aldoory stated that college students should be exposed to different types of healthier foods, how students should be taught how to cook such meals. College students should try these new healthy meals and think about how the food makes them feel.

For example, Aldoory stated that students should understand how they feel, whether looking at how energized they feel when they eat junk food versus healthier meals. Or by having students test their vitamin levels to see the results. Aldoory concluded by stating that there are many different ways of helping people think about what they consume.  

Obesity remains a relevant issue in the United States 

Obesity is defined by the Mayo Clinic as “a complex disorder involving an excessive amount of body fat.” When a person has a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30 that means the person is obese. The current obesity rate, as of the year 2013, for adolescents between the ages of 18 and 25 years old is approximately 15 percent. Women being the biological sex with a slightly higher rate of obesity of approximately 28 percent, in comparison to males who make up approximately 27 percent.

According to the State of Obesity website  people who are Caucasian have a 25.3 percent of obesity, while African Americans and Latinos have a 37.5 and 25.9 percent of obesity respectively. From this data we conclude that people of different races other than Caucasian, specifically African Americans and the Latino populations have a greater propensity of being obese. 

Obesity is a prevalent issue in the United States. However, obesity does not appear to be a common issue on college campuses in the United States based on our observations. When walking around campus at the University of Maryland you rarely see an obese student. There are always students running along the sidewalks, other students riding their bicycles, and other students walking to their classes. However, seeing an obese or overweight student is a rare sight.

Based on these observations I became interested in learning about the prevalence of obesity in colleges and factors that may play roles large enough to influence the propensity of college students becoming obese. And ways to try to decrease the amount of obese college students.

Obesity costs companies in the United States $8.65 billion annually

A recent article on Yahoo! discussed a study that was measuring the potential effects obesity has on a person’s job. The main discovery of the study completed was how obesity costs companies a lot of money ($8.65 billion annually in the United States), because often in times people who are obese have many absences. The study inferred that the numerous absences from obese workers annually were as a result of the diseases that come with obesity.

Examples of illnesses that often come with obesity are heart disease and diabetes. The article is relevant to college students in America because it brings awareness to the severity of obesity, obesity may cost college students and everyone else who is obese their jobs. If college students do not begin to take obesity seriously their future may be in jeopardy, not only health-wise but work-wise as well.